Top ten mindfulness tips for leaders

I wrote a post a while ago titled ‘Do superheroes cry‘ which contained deep within it some mindfulness tips for leaders.

Leadership is something which carries along with it management roles but sometimes leaders can forget about the effect their actions and decisions can have upon others.

Head teacher John Kendall hit the nail on the head with this yesterday and what great leaders do:

A strong leader knows his opinion & resolutely sticks to it!

A stronger leader gathers opinions, consults, considers, and then decides.

— John Kendall (@RiscaCCS_Head) December 27, 2015

It resonates with this well known quote from Benjamin Franklin:

With that in mind then, here are my top ten tips for mindfulness for school leaders. Sure, there could be other things involved such as having a strong moral compass and other such guidelines for school leaders as outlined in my ten things everyone should know about great school leaders; but these are my thoughts on mindfulness.

1. Do what you say you’re going to do
2. Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk
3. Be respectful at all times
4. Reply to messages
5. Don’t take credit, rise above it
6. Be mindful of your thoughts
7. Listen – without making judgments
8. Plan deadlines and timings carefully
9. Only hold meetings that are necessary
10. Take time for you

I do love lists, absolutely – but I find things stick better with a visualisation, so here’s one I made to go with the list. It is quite high quality, so if you wanted to print it, click on it, save and then print.

For those who like to know how I did it….

1. Found image on Pixabay
2. Converted to watercolour using the Waterlogue app
3. Added the watercolour to Union and then cut out the original photograph of the climber to blend in with the watercolour
4. Saved to Adobe Draw and added writing
5. Opened in Photoshop CC to add border and title (using Phosphate font) and Twitter handle (using Raleway font)

Thanks!